Skelmersdale born Joe Power uses his psychic powers to help the police solve crime

Jun 18 2009 by Tom Duffy, Ormskirk Advertiser

MEMORIES of the early 90s crime series Cracker may now be fading, but Joe Power’s life brings the drama very much back to life.

The psychic medium appeared at Ormskirk Civic Hall recently night to promote The Man Who Sees Dead People, an autobiography that recounts Joe's journey from an adolescence spent on the grey streets of Skelmersdale to US television success. Although Joe suppressed his metaphysical powers throughout his childhood, his brother's drug overdose death inspired him to embrace this innate ability and turn his back on a life of petty crime.

Although Joe has enjoyed commercial success in America and in the UK, he is particularly proud of his Cracker style cooperation with police in solving missing persons mysteries and murders. The horrific murder of Lynsey Quy in 1998 was the first time Joe felt compelled to become involved in an investigation. Joe had seen a vision of Lynsey's mutilated body in a dream, and felt compelled to inform Southport police that they were faced with a murder investigation, not a missing person. And his worst fears were realised when the victim's mutilated body was discovered in the seaside town.

Joe also assisted Merseyside Police with the investigation in to the Helen McCourt mystery. Helen was murdered in 1988 by pub landlord Ian Simms. Although her body is yet to be recovered, Joe is convinced that the victim's remains will be located one day.

More recently Joe helped the police track the killer of Sally Anne Bowman. The psychic was convinced that the perpetrator was involved with the food industry, and his intuition was substantiated when chef Mark Dixie was convicted of the murder last year.

The highest profile case of Joe's career so far has been the Madeleine McCann

tragedy. The psychic is highly aware of the sensitive nature of this case, but he has so far emailed a report to the Portuguese police on the location he thinks the little girl was taken to.

He said: “The visions continued and led me to focus on the side of the house, where I saw fresh footprints and evidence of digging. I knew that if the police found the house, I could take them to exactly where the digging had been done.

“Madeleine’s DNA is located there. I still didn't know if Madeleine was dead or alive at that point. DNA can be footprints, fingerprints, hair samples or even clothing. I asked an artist friend of mine to draw the stone house. I emailed this information and the sketch of the house to the Portuguese police.”

And the author appeared to millions of Japanese television viewers earlier this year when he used his gift to help solve the murder of a 24 year old man discovered suffocated in his car and the case of a missing girl.

The Man Who Sees Dead People is now on sale priced £6.99.